CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netweb-servicessoap
user727504
user727504

Reputation: 1

Why can' t I send pure XML in the SOAP body?


I am implementing a Client Web Service call to a SOAP Web Service implemented using .NET.
I used the WSDL provided and I am happy with what I send, e.g.:

POST /publicws/query.asmx HTTP/1.1
Host: www.blablabla.com
Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: length
SOAPAction: "http://www.blablabla.com/WebServices/Query"

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
  <soap:Body>
    <Query xmlns="http://www.blablabla.com/WebServices/Query"> <- <Query> tag #1
      <string_XML>
        <Query>                                                <- <Query> tag #2
          <Param1>param1value</Param1>
          <Param2>param2value</Param2>
        </Query>
      </string_XML>
    </Query>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

But, I get an error response:

<faultcode>soap:Client</faultcode>
  <faultstring>Server was unable to read request. --> There is an error in XML document (6, 2). --> 'Element' is an invalid node type. Line 6, position 2.</faultstring>

However, by sending the following message (html-encoded inside), it is successful:

[...]
    <Query xmlns="http://www.blablabla.com/WebServices/Query">
      <string_XML>
        &lt;Query&gt;&lt;Param1&gt;param1value&lt;/Param1&gt;&lt;Param2&gt;param2value&lt;/Param2&gt;&lt;/Query&gt;
      </string_XML>
[...]

Note that adding CDATA around the tag #2 is also successful.

The fix described above seems quite dirty to me.

My question is about the server side.
I thought that the routing was performed using the SOAP Action and that the SOAP Body shall only contain the business relevant data.

However, in my case, it does not seem to work that way:
-The Query tag is there twice (I guess once too much)
-And the string_XML tag is certainly not there for business

[...]
 <Query xmlns="http://www.blablabla.com/WebServices/Query">  <- <Query> tag #1 useless ?
   <string_XML>           <- useless ?
     &Query&...           <- <Query> tag #2 should be pure xml ?
[...]

Both the Query tag #1 and the string_XML tag seem totally useless from a business perspective.

Why couldn't I just send pure XML in the SOAP Body ?
Is there a first service that parses the request until string_XML and then passes the content to another piece of code that handles the business ?
What is the architecture behind the scene responsible for this ?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Nicolas.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1876

Answers (1)

Achim
Achim

Reputation: 15722

Why couldn't I just send pure XML in the SOAP Body ?

Because that's the way SOAP was designed. The outer part of your xml is just a format defined by the SOAP protocol. You try to pass a string (xml is not a soap data type) via that protocol, so the string has to be encoded. And if you do that properly, your code obviously works.

It's not clear to me, why you care about those implementation details. Usually you should you client library handle these details. You shouldn't even care, that XML is involved at all. If you think for some reason, that SOAP has to much overhead, then you're probably right. But then you should try to change SOAP. Just use REST.

Upvotes: 1

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